This thesis addresses itself to students of South Africa on the one hand, and
to political scientists on the other. The South African polity, it argues,
must be understood as a single, complex and powerful manifestation of the
capitalist state. It is 'the ideologies and activities of capitalists therefore,
that are of central importance to our understanding of what is unique and what
not unique about the political nature of this society. At the same time, the
study focusses on matters of more general concern to students of capitalism,
asking how the understanding of ideologies, interests and dominance can advance
our knowledge of power and its relationship to the class structure.